OS syndrome begins to set in

today, at 6:16pm (pakistan time), Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. i personally wasn't a huge fan; i think she was pushing for too much too fast, and though it was most likely unintentional, i think she was actually making things worse rather than better. her death, i think, will only exacerbate that. for now, i think it unlikely--but certainly possible--that musharraf was behind it. only time will tell. pakistan would not be a fun place to live right about now.

h/t wizbang

as odd as this may sound...

i'm glad i'm not "the boss" all of the time. although if i actually got all of the perks that went along with being the boss, it might not be quite so bad. my supervisor at the bank got this week off, which leaves me in charge of... well, pretty much everything. the manager is in on occasion, but: a) he manages another branch as well; b) he's incredibly busy finishing up loan renewals for all the farmers/orchardists from both branches; and c) he's unfamiliar with and doesn't have access to much of the operations side of things since the merge. so while he is an excellent resource for banking knowledge, and more often than not can solve a problem when i'm not even sure exactly what's wrong, he's not a whole lot of help with the general day-to-day stuff. a lot of it is stuff i can handle: supervising the other tellers, making sure the cash balances, getting the day's work run through the imager and sent of to HQ, etc. unfortunately, i also got left in charge of several of the end-of-year audits, which i have absolutely no experience with. and on some of them, i don't even have access (since i'm not really a supervisor) to all the bits and pieces that i need to complete them, which means i get to bug someone higher up the chain of command. and while they don't mind helping, between their own audits and all the other people who are bugging them, they are quite busy and not always able to get back to me in a timely manner. which again makes me glad i'm not a boss all of the time.

so really, i guess, all of that was a really long way of saying that i'm looking forward to next year.

Merry Christmas!

To all, and to all a good night.

quote of the day

"Things will not calm down, Daniel Jackson. They will in fact calm up." --Teal'c, Stargate SG-1, 'Thor's Chariot'

ftl

jealousy for the loss.

whoa. they weren't kidding

i recently purchased the first two seasons of stargate: sg-1, and almost cracked up when i saw the following sticker attached to the front: "ADULT CONTENT - May contain nudity and adult situations." i had already seen a good chunk of the series--parts of season 1, and all of seasons 2-7--and while there were a decent amount of "adult situations," i didn't remember any nudity. so i figured there might be a few brief shots of someone's ass... not really necessary, but not a huge deal. i was wrong. in the pilot episode, there is definitely some full frontal nudity, which i'm fairly certain didn't make it to the tv version. had i read the "plot keywords" on imdb i might have been prepared, but it actually caught me completely by surprise. it was mainly surprising, i think, because two different characters were in the exact same situation at different times: on the first one i was expecting the nudity, but everything was covered up; on the second one, i wasn't expecting it any more, and then all of a sudden, "whoa, hey! flesh."

so, to cut a long story short, while the show is well worth watching, don't watch it with younger siblings.

open invitation

if any of you happen to find yourself in the waterville area on december 17th, you're more than welcome to come watch me get sworn at. or maybe sworn in. tomato, tomahto. the "ceremony" will take place at the waterville town hall sometime (i'm guessing at the end) of the town council meeting, which starts at 7:30. no beverages (other than the coffee they've usually got on hand) will be served, because i still have to get up for work in the morning. that is all.

except for when it does

quote of the day: "...Islam does not allow suppression of other religions...." except, you know, for when it does. granted, Christianity doesn't have a perfect track record in that area, but we've pretty well grown out of it by now. here's to hoping the gentleman quoted above sticks to his word, and serves as an example for some of his more extreme brethren.

cougars ftw

i meant to post this immediately following the game, but a friend and several greyhounds distracted me. cougars beat the huskies, 42-35. if jake locker could actually complete a pass every now and then though, it probably would have been a different story; that kid will be damn good in a few years.

political correctness gone overboard

which is really not overly surprising in this day and age, but this is all kinds of messed up:

Travis Grigsby loves playing drums, but he and his friend Alex Coday weren't able to play for two weeks after they were suspended. It started after the band's performance at a football game. Some kids on the drum line said they were talking about the best knots to use to tie up the drum equipment.

"Someone asked if anybody knew how to tie a noose and Travis did admit he knew how to tie a noose," Kim Grigsby said.

Travis' mom said her son is almost an Eagle Scout, he knew how to tie it, but told his friends he wouldn't because you could get in trouble for that. Later, a black student on the drum line told the teacher he was offended.

"Travis was accused of using a racial slur for saying the word 'noose.' Then he was suspended for 10 days," Kim said.

h/t tongue tied

those crazy spokanites

somehow, i survived this city for 3 years: children get repossessed.

h/t dave barry

leave of absence

or something like that. i'm headed to spokane for tomorrow and sunday, which should give me a decent excuse for a few more days of being lazy and not blogging.

whoops

muslim world: "we don't want your western culture! it will corrupt our youth!"

us: "um, dude?"

muslim world: "..."


h/t say anything

what about dads?

question of the day: why is it that if a woman chooses to abort her unborn infant, it's all fine and dandy... but if she wanted to keep the child and it's killed, it's murder?

see here for more. i had a whole long rant planned out this morning, but 9 hours at work drained it all away.

news of note

not quite as fun as the flying cow, but good news all the same:

1) as of yesterday, i am the sole owner of my car, having paid it off in just under a year.

2) as of right about now, you can click here to see how awesome i am (scroll about 1/3 of the way down the page), and then leave a comment to remind me that it's a small town/i was running unopposed/something to pop my ego.

no looking back

so, i'm guessing that this couple from michigan won't be making too many trips back to eastern washington:

Cow falls 200 feet onto van; Michigan couple escape injury Cow falls 200 feet onto van; Michigan couple escape injury
By Jaime Adame World staff writer
Posted November 05, 2007

MANSON — A cow fell about 200 feet off a cliff Sunday and landed on the hood of a minivan passing by Rocky Point about one mile east of Manson, officials said.

read the whole thing here.

staring at the sun

indirectly, at least. i thought this video of a solar flare was pretty dang cool.

this just in

your chance to be a great person for 2007 is now here:


child's play is a charity that i am proud to support. if you've got any extra money floating around this time of year, please do the same.

obviously

after multiple occasions on which i've made fun of friends for not updating their blogs often enough, it looks like i've become the guy who doesn't update his blog often enough. luckily, they either haven't noticed, or they're nicer than i am, because it has yet to be pointed out. hopefully it will be remedied soon.

awesome football play

i think some people must have been spending a bit too much time watching espn classic, but it worked, so who cares?

h/t dave barry